Dr. Barry Kaufman founded Atlantic Gastroenterology Associates
in 1981 and is overseeing the development of the Celiac Diagnosis
Center in Egg Harbor Township. The new center,which Kaufman says is
the area's first, will provide wider screening and help for people
with a genetic allergy to wheat gluten.

Edward Lea

Atlantic Gastroenterology Associates has started the area's
first Celiac Diagnosis Center at its Fire Road location in Egg
Harbor Township.

Dr. Barry Kaufman founded Atlantic Gastroenterology Associates
in 1981 and is overseeing the development of the Celiac Diagnosis
Center in Egg Harbor Township. The new center,which Kaufman says is
the area's first, will provide wider screening and help for people
with a genetic allergy to wheat gluten.

Edward Lea

Atlantic Gastroenterology Associates has started the area's
first Celiac Diagnosis Center at its Fire Road location in Egg
Harbor Township.

Atlantic Gastroenterology Associates has opened a Celiac
Diagnostic Center that will use advanced techniques to determine
whether people with digestive issues might be allergic to
gluten.

Dr. Barry Kaufman, founder of the large gastrointestinal
medicine practice on Fire Road in Egg Harbor Township, said it
created the area's first such center to address widespread
underdiagnosis of celiac disease.

The disease - in which the body's reaction to wheat, rye and
barley gluten damages the digestive tract and causes a wide variety
of symptoms - is estimated to affect one in 110 people, but only a
small percentage of those have been diagnosed and helped.

Kaufman said he believes the number of people with celiac or a
related adverse reaction to gluten is much higher.

"Maybe 5 or 6 percent have celiac-related issues. We're not sure
what category they're in, but in our minds they're partially
celiac," he said. "Our feeling was that as we began to see the
diversity of presentations of this, and frequently patients didn't
have the full-blown illness we were taught to recognize, we had to
consider other methods of diagnosis."

The Celiac Diagnostic Center has a pathology lab on site for
processing biopsies of upper digestive tract tissue - still the
most informative test for celiac disease even though a blood test
can often detect an allergic response to gluten.

"We don't just use the blood test anymore to tell us yes or no,"
Kaufman said. "There are inflammatory changes in the upper
intestinal tract that in the past weren't recognized as indicative
of celiac, more subtle changes, entirely microscopic, and we're
focused on those."

Even people who have been told they do not have celiac disease
might want to reconsider gluten intolerance as a possible cause if
they have symptoms such as bloating or abdominal pain, he said.

The practice has also added specially trained technicians to its
staff of 35 so the center can conduct breath tests to determine
which nutrients a person is absorbing, he said, which can indicate
impairment of the digestive tract.

Kaufman founded Atlantic Gastroenterology Associates in 1981.
The practice now has four full-time gastroenterologists who are
ownership partners, and another three such doctors part time.

Beyond such common procedures as colonoscopies to screen for
cancer, Atlantic Gastroenterology's use of technology and conduct
of clinical trials is more like university-level work, Kaufman
said.

"For example, coming up soon we'll set up a hepatitis treatment
center. We did some of the early phase trials for hepatitis drugs
that were recently approved," he said.

Other research involves inflammatory bowel disease and "patients
in the region may qualify for novel treatments being studied
scientifically in clinical trials," Kaufman said.

Among advanced technologies used at the practice are:

two versions of PillCam, a capsule-mounted camera slightly
larger than a vitamin that provides digital images of the small
intestine or the esophagus;

the Bravo System for measuring acid reflux by attaching a tiny
sensor to the wall of the esophagus;

the SmartPill that provides information about stomach and bowel
actions;